In February and March, ATEEZ brought their “The Fellowship: Break The World” tour to Europe. While the group is now preparing for the tour’s “Anchor” in Seoul (a smart wordplay that proves the group’s dedication to their pirate lore), the actual tour came to an end with a concert in Paris on March, 8th. KAvenyou was there to embark on an eventful voyage.
A strong concert that shows off the group’s concept
ATEEZ actually held two concerts in Paris, on March 7th and 8th. Almost like a nod to the group’s recent concepts, the city (and the country) was under a major strike on the 7th. While it didn’t impact attendance on the first date, the 2nd date suffered a little bit more from the situation. The energy from the audience absolutely made up for the missing fans. It was as if those who managed to attend the concert decided to scream twice as much to represent the fans that were forced to stay at home.
After a VCR with a strong message (“We want to protect you all. […] Living your life in your position are the world itself. Don’t doubt yourself.”) The concert opens on New World. The outfits (both the dancers and members wear capes) and the use of lights give off a very cinematic feeling. During the whole the concert, the production cleverly navigates throughout the group’s concept’s – from conquering new territories to fighting the storm on a pirate ship without forgetting fighting against the ruling powers. Artistic effects mostly rely on screens with a just a few props on set, but it’s all so detailed that we almost forget we’re not actual pirates who travel the sea.
As the group’s discography keep growing, meaning the concert is filled with fans’ favorites even though many fans would have loved to get even more tracks. As it is, songs like Say My Name, Wonderland, Answer, Halla Halla, Guerilla or The Real display the group’s strong and rebellious image. Meanwhile, Wave, Dazzling, Light Mist, Sunrise or Turbulence show their more playful or emotional sides. A specific section of the show, where the audience and member can play with balloons, highlights the mischievous and slightly child-like personality of the members.
Communication and a mutual love between fans and artists
The members and their fans seem to have a mutual understanding, the kind that comes from experience and mutual love. When Mingi starts barking, the crowd imediately followed along. When San breaks into a fanchant often seen in french concerts, the fans follow him right away. On the 1st day of the concert, in the middle of the show, when ATEEZ try to tease their CEO, the fans help them to do so. It’s quite interesting to realize how much each side seems to know what to expect from the other.
Since their previous World Tour, it’s obvious that the members have worked hard to improve their English skills. Unfortunately, it remains a foreign language to them. They sometimes seemed to struggle choosing between keeping their ment in English for fand to understand if well, especially after the screen displayed a fan-made video from fans. In the video, fans expressed the reasons why they were thankful for Ateez – and there was way more than 13 different reasons. After that, Yunho especially explained that he would have to make his ment in Korean. He and expressed how the fans mean the World to him. Seonghwa added, « You’re forever my confidence and my driving force. I’ll be back as a Universe large enough to hold all the stars that you are. I love you!”
Overall, an impressive performance
By the time we reach the end of the show, we can’t help but notice how collective the whole show has been. There’s no solo nor unit performance – which means the members are on stage almost the whole show. The VCRs are enough for them to change their outfit, but probably not to get a short break. It’s quite impressive of them to remain this powerful and energetic throughout a show with close to no breaks. For almost 2 hours and a half, they give a performance close to perfection. They also strengthenned their bound with an audience that is willingly captive. From the reaction in the venue after Mingi claims “Paris, you are mine”, we’re pretty sure fans would be happy to stay in the hold of the group’s pirate boat.
With this tour, Ateez permanently cements their position as one of their most popular K-Pop groups in Europe. From their first concert in Paris in front of 1500 fans until performing two days in a row in one of the most emblematic arenas of the country, they steadily grew and improved their stage production. As a result, this tour became one of the most iconic K-Pop concerts performed in Europe to this date.
When the members bid their last farewell and exit the stage, the screens shows the tour credits. And it looks exactly the way you’d see in a movie theater. It suddenly makes sense – how we’ve watched a pirates and adventures movie. And as it was Ateez’s third time touring Europe, fans are looking forward to their next trilogy whenever it’ll be.
KAvenyou thanks Ateez, MyMusicTaste and AEG Presents for having us.
